What’s making lots of people I know hesitant is that this was originally presented as the start of a wider shift — Latymer Upper were quite explicit at the time of the announcement that other independent schools would soon follow their lead. That just hasn’t happened. No one else has dropped GCSEs since.
If anything, we’re seeing the opposite. A number of top schools have gone out of their way to say they’re sticking with GCSEs, simply treating them as a baseline rather than the main focus — Westminster and Highgate being the obvious examples.
Among many parents in West London, including those who’ve just been through the 11+ process, there’s also little appetite for going down the Latymer route unless there’s no other strong local alternative. Our prep head and others at prep schools where we have friends have been similarly cautious in advising for it.
We’ve been told that Latymer is still receiving a volume of applications, particularly from families aiming for bursaries, but that overall uptake compared with similar schools is now definitely lower unless bursary support is involved. In that sense, it now feels more like a first-choice option versus a local state school, rather than versus other academic independents.
At the moment, it’s essentially just Latymer and Bedales doing their own thing, on the basis that GCSEs are too easy for their pupils. That may or may not be true, but in the current climate, going against the national norm doesn’t feel especially wise — particularly when universities already seem wary of private schools and them doing something “special” for their “special” pupils